When the American consumer goes to market.
He is bombarded with the claims of advertising on the air in the press from all
sides often conflicting needs claims range all the way from honest to phone
but even the honest most straightforward claims rarely give the comparative facts
the consumer needs if he has to choose intelligently.
Looking for answers the consumer finds questions which brand is the Best Buy is
price a guide to quality what's good what's bad who can tell me to help find
answers to the consumers questions as in this case by testing new cars for their
actual performance. There is an organization.
It's job is to supplied to several million people who look to it regularly for the
truth buying guidance based on unbiased tests.
These New England children are actually at play.
But for this same consumer organization they are also part of a research project as
serious objective
and thorough as another one on a lake in Florida where an outboard goes round
and round.
Headquarters for this research work on the public's behalf is in Mt Vernon New York
at Consumers Union chartered twenty five years ago as a nonprofit membership
organization.
Chief among its many services is the monthly magazine Consumer Reports the.
This organization which accept no advertising
or sponsorship receives its income from the sale of its publications.
Its reader members are a responsive group
and their replies to questionnaires are important in determining subjects to be
researched
and reported on devoting its entire income to the cost of its work Consumer's Union
links together a well informed membership in the common interest.
The members by mail ballots also annually designate their choices for consumers
unions board of directors often eminent economists scientists
or other professional people.
None of whom may have any connection with any manufacturer
or distributor of consumer goods.
They find their compensation in the organization's mission to serve by exposing
deceptive selling practices by encouraging higher quality standards
and by telling consumers the facts they need before they buy
all the work of see you as because it is supervised by Dexter masters the director
who is appointed by the board with the use editorial director.
Mildred Brady Masters reviews have the elation of readers questionnaires finding
much reader interest in stereo phonographs they decide the subject is worth looking
into.
To this then the department heads meet to plan the study's settling such questions
as which brands and models should be tested.
What price range would interest most readers what performance characteristics would
readers want most to know about.
The men
and women who settled these points bring to bear a knowledge of audio electronics.
Plus long experience in marketing purchasing search.
When the meeting ends packaged stereo. Phonographs is an active project.
The specific test methods to be employed
and the engineering approach are worked out by technical director Morris Kaplan
with Michel Carter head of the C.U. Audio laboratory.
The library staff prepares a complete bibliography of technical references
and background material for everyone working on the project.
While researchers prepare to furnish a running supply current information.
All across the United States consumers union has its own staff of shoppers on a
call from the market information department they stand ready to purchase products
for study.
Shoppers are instructed to dress like someone who is buying for personal use
and never reveal their mission for Consumers Union
but shoppers pay for their purchases in cash and so
that there can be no switching of merchandise. They insist on immediate delivery.
Meanwhile at Mount Vernon N.C.
Use audio laboratory engineers have readied the complex equipment which will be
used to test
and compare the stereo phonographs evaluation will be for quality for performance
for safety and for convenience important considerations in any C.
You study in this case objective test have been devised to detect
and measure distortion and sound
and to record the smoothness of mechanical function both prime factors in audio
performance these tests will be applied to all the sample phonographs received
and will go on for many weeks but it.
There may be at any time forty to fifty different projects under study in the seven
major laboratories in the chemical laboratory always one of the most active a
comparison of dozens of brands of competing dog foods may be taking place at the
same time
and with the same care as a laboratory examination of prepared baby food for
its tests of children's shoes Consumers Union goes outside its laboratories to a
most unbiased group footwear is carefully fitted to each of the boys who will wear
several pairs in rotation each pair for a stated length of time under conditions of
normal wear
and tear on
Abbey intervals during fifteen weeks the shoes are examined for appearance
and condition then in the use textile laboratory the shoes are distracted for the
final analysis of how they have stood up to the stress of use.
Meanwhile from the automobile Test Track
and other facilities in Connecticut chief automotive consultant Lawrence crooks
brings to the Mt Vernon headquarters of see you.
His latest data on cars which the organization has been testing publications
director David mess has been waiting to review with crocs his latest findings which
include subjective evaluations for road ability ease of handling
and riding comfort of the cars already on hand from earlier examinations are all
technical specifications.
See you regularly test new models of household appliances to check manufacturer's
claims of improvement.
Afterwards many of the samples are sold to staff members
and their families their samples are donated to hospitals are finishes
and the like bio automobiles are traded in the latest models.
The test being run on new models of washing machines will check claims of improved
washing ability which may or may not prove to be true.
With an exact amount of wash carrying synthetically soiled swatches of material the
correct amount of soap
or detergent is put in just as indicated by the manufacturer later checks will
cover washing capacity the amount of electricity consumed
and even measure the amount of water used.
To find out how various appliances operate under different weather conditions. C.U.
Engineers have designed a chamber where various combinations of temperature
and humidity can be provided with precision.
The problem at hand is to see whether temperatures rise inside the refrigerator.
When the room heat is raised from seventy to ninety
and even to one hundred ten degrees by means of thermal couples placed at various
positions within the refrigerator the engineers will determine whether temperatures
remain low enough but the proper storage of both fresh
and frozen foods electrically
the thermo couples transmit the temperature readings past the refrigerator door to
recording devices completely outside the test chamber the data that's received can
be interpreted by sea use engineers
and will form the basis of a future article in Consumer Reports.
Since the most essential requirement of a portable T.V.
Set is
that it be actually light enough to carry the samples selected for testing are
first weighed and then measured to check their bulk.
The engineers study picture quality with a standard test pattern broadcast by sea
use own close circuit T.V. Transmitters.
It's a painstaking business and it can't be done merely by and by good intentions.
It requires expensive equipment to measure crispness fineness of detail
and many other factors.
Other rigorous tests can be performed only in the isolation of the first green room
a Farraday cage where radio waves normally in the air cannot enter.
There under carefully controlled conditions a minute
and technically realistic comparison can be made of each of the receivers
performance characteristics for the consumers guidance.
But some products cannot be evaluated by any special equipment
nor yet by any staff of male researchers.
So the matter in question was referred to a test group of fifty women who compared
ball point lipstick with the traditional kind of Staff members
always on the lookout for products of special interest dotted an educational toy is
something readers might like to know about standards of performance
and value can be applied as readily to a toy as to an appliance.
Bound to be on rates not acceptable electrical appliances are always carefully
checked for possible shock hazards.
For safety on the highway as evident by C.
Use continuing campaign for devices like the automobile seatbelt
and for their improvement
manufacturers often react to see use negative ratings by improving their products.
This is attested by many letters see you has received from the companies themselves.
With the hundreds of thousands of brands
and models of consumer goods found in today's marketplace.
See you obviously cannot test and report on them all.
No one organization could do that but see you test as many brands
and models as it can afford to within the context of its readers indicated
interests. Beyond this E.U.
Provides general buying guidance
and informed evaluations of many products by types as well as by brands
and aside from its test reports see you always gives the consumer as much reliable
information as it can assemble on pricing distribution
and other trade practices which may also affect the consumer's judgment as to the
desirability
and suitability of a product in
the case of package stereo phonographs thirty five individual brands
and models have been undergoing their laboratory tests.
Now the time has come to review the data from these tests at one of the periodic
meetings of the C.E.O. Project team. With the first results in hand.
The writer can begin blocking out his story
and at the same time answered by the technical or marketing members of the team.